Why is a Weed} 



ranks of the despised to the category 

 of the useful and desirable. Merely 

 perfunctory human friendships rest 

 practically upon the same selfish basis. 

 A person who gives us nothing is a 

 person who has no claims whatever 

 upon our consideration. Both as in- 

 dividuals and as nations, that is to an 

 unfortunate degree only too true. So 

 long as a Negro lived his normal, so- 

 called savage existence in Senegambia, 

 from our standpoint he merely cum- 

 bered the earth, the same as the "rhinos" 

 and crocodiles. His life was held cheap 

 by white men with gunpowder at their 

 command. When it was found, how- 

 ever, that he could be kidnaped and 

 converted into a servant at a profit, he 

 was fed and clothed and protected — 

 no longer a human weed. The moment 

 it develops that you can use someone 

 to your own advantage, no matter how 

 little he meant to you before, you 

 suddenly take a great interest in him, 

 begin to cultivate him as you would 



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